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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23034952">as we watch the hourglass</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocketShoru/pseuds/LocketShoruOLD'>LocketShoruOLD (LocketShoru)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aeternum -Iridescence- [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Saint Seiya, 聖闘士星矢: 冥王神話 | Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Anthropomorphic, F/M, Fem!Minos, Fluff, Foreplay, Minos' POV, Pregnancy, Survival, it's not very explicit, the catgirl kind as always, there is a shower scene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:41:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23034952</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocketShoru/pseuds/LocketShoruOLD</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>[Aeternum IV] Time marches on, and so do they, one day more where they beat the odds against them. Minos gets to do a lot of things, like hitting nightmare creatures with machine tools and admiring the fish-man who saved her life. She can't really be blamed for the latter. He's hot, and she's allowed to tell him so.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Griffon Minos/Pisces Albafica</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aeternum -Iridescence- [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596289</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>as we watch the hourglass</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I KNOW IT TOOK ME FOREVER BUT HERE IT IS. I'm through with my midterms, fucking finally. Brutally fucked up the last one, someone beat it into me that it's 'line vty 0 15', not 'interface vty 0 15'. Fuck you Cisco.<br/>Anyway. Minos gets the POV and she spends it doing the entirely predictable Minos thing and checks out Alba's ass. And grabs it when she is offered the opportunity. Light smutty things, in the sort of 'they shower together and feel each other up a bit while getting washed off'. Nothing explicit in the prose itself, though.<br/>Next one introduces a new pair, Aspros and Violate roll on in being mercenaries and literally buddy-cop'ing their way through. Also has actual intersection with the other groups. Next fic, however, is either an IKM update or a Wrench Fic update. Probably the latter, it needs to happen, I've been putting it off. Anyway. Here ya go. I'm going home now.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Minos’ breathing finally slowed to something resembling a normal rate, Albafica rose to his feet. He stepped over to the crushed-in skeleton. She was hoping he would deal with it before it scared her more, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to think about it any more than that. It had been a person… They’d had a few casualties when the biodome had shattered, but they had recovered easily. The rest of the city, they’d had no idea, and yet… </p><p>The clocktower was incredible, as far as places to live went. Most everything had been destroyed, and what hadn’t been wasn’t safe. Albafica had often just found a way to hide within piles of sheet metal and destroyed concrete, and that was the best they had been able to do. Even so. It was a landmark, and she wasn’t sure how nobody had gotten in before now. Where was the catch? Best case scenario, she would get the hydro system fixed, and they’d get some hot water. Worst case, they were going to die from some unseen danger, and it was going to be a painful way to go.</p><p>The noise of Albafica shuffling through his backpack pulled her out of her thoughts. He pulled out what seemed to be a dirty, folded tablecloth out of one pocket and spread it over the skeleton like a shroud, and that was the last she saw of the off-white bone. He gathered it up and stepped past her to the doorway, clearly taking it somewhere she couldn’t see.</p><p>Her eyes lingered on his form for a moment, little though she could actually see of him. His clothes were patched up hastily with glue and what thread he’d been able to scavenge, all dark greys and browns and dusty patches of off-white concrete. Even his fins were mostly covered with what seemed to be a thinner material: likely for the bioluminescence he kept using for the both of their benefits. He’d wrapped her up in all the clothes he could spare, and if she preferred a hazmat suit, well. Those weren’t easy to find anymore, if any existed, and she wasn’t willing to risk her life for one, yet.</p><p>The strange thing was how radically his personality had changed as she unearthed the person he was from the half-feral creature she had met him as. He actually spoke now, and frequently, and didn’t just make brief whistles out of his gills at her until she followed him. All he was now was grace and careful disposition, and the way he positioned his back to her as he slipped out of the room, ensuring she didn’t see another glimpse of the skeleton.</p><p>It was hard not to love him, at least a little, when he took the extra step like that. She shifted back onto her feet, rising, striding over towards the hydro system. It honestly wasn’t anything she couldn’t have handled, and while a few things were ruptured, the delicate parts - the fusion generator, to be more specific - looked to be entirely intact. She reached up and rubbed her thumb against the display, wiping away the dirt.</p><p>It was still running on its secondary battery. Generators like these - if she recalled correctly the exact makeup of this model - had four batteries, and it wasn’t until the fourth that it switched from fusion power to lithium. It still had its own radioactivity, likely thorium, and could still be used. Even if the main power grid was inaccessible and they couldn’t reach outside water, they’d be able to generate some. Anything they brought in from outside could be crafted into water, so long as they had the necessary hydrogen and oxygen.</p><p>She smiled, slow and soft and probably feral, and reached down towards the spare pipe on the floor. Once she got the main system running, the generator could power any tools she had while she repaired it. It wouldn’t take very long at all. </p><p>Albafica came back, scanning where she was before settling down on the opposite side of the room. She tilted her head upward, eyeing the top of the system for any issues.</p><p>“Uhm…” she started. He looked up, one fin perked and the other flared to the side. She’d never used his name to actually refer to him, and habit died hard. </p><p>“Something wrong?” he asked, tone concerned. She didn’t pull her gaze away from the corner, where she could see a small hole about the size of her hand, without a single cobweb around it like every other corner. Worse, she was sure those marks around the edges were less cracks and more like toothmarks in the plaster. Her gut clenched, breath quickening without her notice. </p><p>“That corner’s been disturbed, and it doesn’t look nice.” He rose and stepped over, brushing her temple with his chin. His hands slipped around her waist and she leaned back, pressing her shoulder blade to his chest. After a moment, he seemed to freeze, his breath all but catching in his throat.</p><p>“We need to get out of here,” he said, his voice just barely above a whisper. She tilted her head toward him, and his ear-fins were stick-straight pulled back. That meant fear, and if he was this concerned, she probably should be, too.</p><p>She knew it was too good to be true. “Ravagers?” she asked. </p><p>“No,” he said, and stepped back, pulling her gently with him, and his steps were quite suddenly silent. She followed, equally silent, ignoring the way the dust caught below the pads of her feet. Human feet were better. Jumping with cat legs wasn’t exactly an asset, and honestly, neither were the claws. They managed two steps before he darted out of the way, throwing her back towards the door. She slammed into the floor with a yelp, both arms catching her against it. She blinked and there he was, fins flared, knife in his hand. </p><p>The wall gave way. It split from the corner like a crack in glass, and then quite suddenly crumbled.</p><p>Behind the wall were four cybernetic… things. Their heads looked like balding zombies, with gaping mouths and too-long tongues, and they walked on all fours and still somehow looked like emaciated children, with cybernetic attachments where their flesh seemed to have fallen off, and they <em>definitely </em>had more than four legs. They turned, and Albafica had their full attention.</p><p>He was between the nope-creatures and her, and all he had was a switchblade knife. Panic crawled up her spine.</p><p>A hissing escaped his gills. “Minos, <em>run</em>,” he hissed, and she couldn’t see his face, but she knew the panic edged in it. She wanted to. She wanted to run and keep running until she was home again.</p><p>The nope-creatures focused on him, and for a moment, she didn’t feel a thing. It was slow motion, like a movie, like it wasn’t real: a silhouette of rags and fish fins armed with a knife, staring down some broken, cybernetic version of a <em>Dark Souls</em> boss. One creature stepped forward over the other three, advancing. Her stomach gave a painful kick, and the fury rolled over her like a wave against the long-forgotten shore.</p><p>This was real. He was going to get ripped apart if she didn’t move. </p><p>She moved. Toes open, claws extended. She was on her feet and darting to the spare generator in the corner. Copper lithium. It would have to do. She slammed her fingers down on the switch, other hand free to grab the jumper cables and the coil of copper wire. The wire was smooth and cold against her touch. She unwound it, wrapped it tight around the clamp. Red to back and black to ground. The knot all but tied itself.</p><p>Albafica leapt behind her, his scream loud against her ears, and she barely heard him. She tore across the room. A fine white powder dusted the second outlet. It wouldn’t supply an extra charge. She didn’t care. She pushed the wire through, hitting every connection, every contact. Jamming the wire into the socket, pulling it out once it was firm. If she could find a copper rod…</p><p>Her fingers found purchase against a piece of piping as she went by, pulling it out from its spot in the main generator. Old and worn and still copper. Albafica yelled in pain. She refused to turn, focused entirely on her task. The dents and holes in the pipe was exactly what she needed. She wove the wire through, reaching for the second jumper clamp, tying the knot. If she could have spot welded it, if it wouldn’t tear… No matter.</p><p>He danced back, away from the creature that was now bleeding something green. She stepped in front of him. The pipe was light in her hand. She threw it like a javelin, watching it sail over them, carrying its trail of copper wire with it. Distance was the enemy of electricity. In this case, she needed as much of both as she could get.</p><p>The creatures looked at it, then at her. Albafica was off to one side, away from her contraption, chest heaving.</p><p>She picked up the jumper cables, tail smacking against the generator. She could hear the hum, almost. Only almost. She opened the clamps, smiled. Staring at the nope-creatures that suddenly were nothing but an inconvenience, she jammed the clamps together.</p><p>Her younger brother, probably dead and resigned to it, would have called it brilliant. Her older brother, still waiting for her even after her own apparent death, would have called it ‘a serious OSHA violation’. She called it being the queen of modern engineering. The lightning overloaded the whole system, baking the copper raw. The world fainted to a painful white before her eyes, nothing but blinding and the sharp crackle of an explosion ringing in her ears, and quite suddenly, she was positively <em>covered</em> in something wet and sticky and she was pretty sure it wasn’t her blood.</p><p>The lightning faded to a ghost in her vision. She blinked, once, twice, ridding her vision of the painful starburst. Three of the four nope-creatures were nothing but smoking parts, blackened and burned and little left of their flesh except the smoke. One was left, cowering in the corner of the now-expanded room, incapable of backing away from her any further. The copper was mostly melted. Behind her, Albafica’s heaving breath was the loudest sound in the room.</p><p>She turned, slipping her hands around her stomach, allowing herself to check his injuries. He was covered in as much blood as she was, and if he was injured, it was impossible to tell where. He looked back at her from behind his goggles, ear-fins limp. There was a shine in his eyes that she knew hadn’t been there before. The anger in her relaxed a little, the wave retreating.</p><p>The creature made a scuffling noise, and she turned back to it. The wave rolled in again. How dare they… This was <em>hers</em>, they’d hit Albafica, and they didn’t get to survive where so many others hadn’t. She reached for the nearest tool, feeling it heavy and cold in her hand, and rose properly to her feet. </p><p>“Minos, don’t you <em>dare</em>,” he whispered, voice raspy. She ignored him and stepped forward, advancing on the creature. It shied away, and if it was making noise, she didn’t hear it over the ringing from the explosion in her ears. Maybe OSHA had a point with the hearing protection.</p><p>She raised the wrench like a baseball bat. “Batter up, fucker,” she murmured, more aware than she wanted to be how unguarded her stomach was. The creature rose, mouth gaping, as if to try and bite her. It jumped. She swung.  It connected with a <em>crack</em> and the head went flying. The body below her collapsed, all warped muscle and sinew and carbon-fiber skin. There was lightning at her fingertips, there had to be, the energy was too much otherwise. She raised the wrench again and brought it down, iron on cybernetically-enhanced decaying flesh. It crumpled under her. She swung again, over and over, bone and metal giving way under her as a laugh she didn’t know she had in her escaped her lips.</p><p>Albafica’s hand slipped to her hip and the other caught her wrist, disarming her, pulling the wrench away from her. He pulled her back, away from the creature, and she was still laughing, but his chest was safety, the rags of his scarf still smelling like the distant dream of sea-salt over comforting gasoline. The warmth of his chest slipped through her clothes and the energy slipped out of her in the same motion, like draining oil.</p><p>Her stomach gave another painful kick and the energy slipped out of her legs. She all but collapsed into him. He caught her, lifting her up into his arms. Hers wouldn’t rise to hold his shoulders, wouldn’t move even though she wanted to hang onto him.</p><p>The blackness swept over her like a wave, and the last thing she felt was the ringing in her ears.</p><p> </p><p>She awoke to warmth, and a musty smell directly in her face, like dampness of clothes she’d forgotten in the washing machine overnight, and very faintly of lemon. She shifted, hunting for fresh air, finding that she felt warmer than she had in ages. Wherever she was laying down, she was covered in blankets.</p><p>She pushed herself into a sitting position, blinking away the heaviness of sleep. The blankets shifted down on her, exposing her face to the room. It seemed to be the living room of a penthouse apartment, all dark wood flooring and a floor-to-ceiling window that showed the entire cityscape. It seemed to be evening, the sun just below the horizon, bathing the world in blue and what was left of neon signs and traffic lights. She seemed to have been sleeping on a divan, buried halfway into a nest of blankets. Albafica was about ten feet away in what looked to be the dining room, his backpack on the chair beside him as he poured over the map.</p><p>He looked up, fins perked and eyes wide. His goggles were pressed against his forehead, mask around his neck. “You’re awake,” he said, softly, tone indicating his relief. “Are you okay?”</p><p>She didn’t answer. He looked exhausted. She didn’t blame him, his clothes were still stained with dried blood and he’d only eaten a little in the past couple of days. She untangled her legs from the blankets mutely, pushing off of the divan, and headed over to him. She wasn’t wearing the canvas straps she’d been before - socks didn’t fit, and they’d done their best. Polyester was the only thing they had. He stood up and stepped towards her, catching her around the waist. She slipped her arms around him and leaned in to steal a kiss, which he thankfully returned. His lips were warm and chapped and somewhat dry, and she didn’t care. She kissed him, didn’t allow it to break as he stepped forward, leading her back to the divan and settling her into the blankets, allowing her to fall back into them.</p><p>He broke away without really moving away from her, his eyes full of concern. “Are you okay?” he repeated. She sunk more into the blankets, pulling him down with her from her grip on his neck until he settled in beside her, propped up with his forearm. The room was lit only by the cityscape and the oil lamp burning on the dining room table. His eyes were dark and his skin was pale, covered in dirt, and he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.</p><p>“I’m fine,” she answered softly. Her stomach gave a kick and she winced. “Or at least, I would be if <em>someone</em> would settle down,” she added, smiling a little. Albafica’s fins spread wide in interest, eyebrows raised. He lifted a hand, paused, like he wasn’t sure how to continue. She took his wrist in hand and placed it gently on her stomach, shifting to lean up against him. He smiled a little in return, almost shy, but rubbed his thumb against her swollen stomach. It was a soothing motion, warm, and her stomach seemed to settle down. He leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead.</p><p>“What about you?” she asked, looking up. He blinked, as if he didn’t expect it. “You got hurt.”</p><p>“I got bit,” he admitted, lifting his hand from her stomach to show her. Underneath his glove and two jackets, she could see where he’d wrapped up the injury, to keep infection away. “I managed to get a rabies vaccine about three years back, it shouldn’t be much to worry about. We’ll need to be heading south soon anyway, I’ll be able to get it checked out.”</p><p>She paused, furrowing her eyebrows. “Sepsis isn’t funny, and unless my math is wrong, you’ve been in this nightmare for longer than three years.” There wouldn’t be any left. Not after a decade of hell.</p><p>He flicked a fin, brushing off her concern. “There’s still supplies if you can find them. I mean, most vet clinics were ground-level and that’s all Scorpion territory, and I’m not <em>that</em> desperate, but if you’re stupid enough to steal from them, or if you know a guy… I got lucky. We are going to see about getting luckier.”</p><p>He pulled the blankets up to her chin, adjusting them. She noted he was covering only her, not the both of them, even though there was enough room for both of them. She reached to pull one over him and he shook his head gently, removing her hand from the cloth and squeezing it. She looked away. She deeply appreciated his existence, yes, and she liked him. It was still a silent rejection of what little she could do to help him.</p><p>He sighed, and she felt the momentary warmth of his kiss against her temple. “I can’t, Minos,” he answered, guessing her emotions correctly. His hand met her chin and tugged her back to look at him. “We just got attacked. You wore yourself out, you need to rest. I’ve barricaded us out from them, but it won’t last if they decide they still want to eat us. You need to recover, and there’s still work that needs to be done.”</p><p>She glowered and pushed her arms through the blankets to wrap around his torso, burying her face in his scarf. She hated the very idea, as much sense as it made. There had to be something she could do to help.</p><p>“You said we needed to be heading south soon,” she said quietly, nosing through his scarf until her face found skin and she kissed his throat. “What for?” </p><p>His hand slipped into her hair, gently undoing the messy bun they’d managed to knot it into. He gave a dry laugh. “You’re six months pregnant, and I don’t know how to deliver a baby, let alone one that probably isn’t going to be fully human, or how to take care of one for more than thirty seconds. Like I said, I know a guy, and assuming he’s still alive, I want to make the trip over while both the oxygen winds and your body let us make the journey down. We need to be thinking long-term. Had I been thinking we would’ve gone down the moment we found out, but… Better late than never.”</p><p>“You know a lot of people,” she murmured, kissing his throat again. His free hand drifted to her stomach again, and he settled in beside her, apparently figuring she wasn’t going to let him up, and he was quite right. He needed to rest, too. His hand absently rubbed at her skin. It was relaxing, listening to his breathing and with his hand protecting both her and their child.</p><p>He shrugged. “I knew a lot more. Everyone who’s made it this far into the whole mess is either a ravager or willing to basically become one in mentality, and…” He trailed off, as though deciding he didn’t want to finish that thought. He pushed himself back onto one elbow, letting go of her hair. “Minos, I need you to promise me you’ll <em>never</em> do that again.”</p><p>She shifted back to look up at him. His expression was more worried than arrogant. “The… lightning thing I did?”</p><p>“You went and charged one of them head-on.” He looked away for a moment, biting his lip, the worry creased into every line on his face. “If you want to explode them with electricity, I mean, go for it. But you stand behind me when you do it. Do not charge one of them with a handheld weapon <em>ever</em> again.”</p><p>She sat up, disentangling herself from him, irritation sweeping over her like a wave. She’d saved his life, hadn’t she? It had been terrifying, and she hadn’t even noticed the anger, and it had been <em>years </em>since she’d lost her temper enough to start throwing things. “Why not?” she demanded. “It’s not like I can’t, because I did, and they <em>bit </em>you and I wasn’t going to just stand there and watch you get slaughtered!”</p><p>His fingers caught her chin again, momentarily silencing her. If he didn’t stop doing that, she was going to smack him. His fins were flat against his head with his annoyance. “Because I’ve seen them rip apart grown men with submachine guns,” he answered flatly, his tone indicating there was no arguing with him. “Because some of those men were my friends. Those beasts don’t come in small units. There’s going to be at least twenty more within a block’s distance around us. They were human once, and now they have more limbs and some of them are metal. You can’t win a fistfight, and if you do, they gang up on you. I don’t really enjoy the idea of watching the woman I’ve come to love walk headfirst into her own painful death because she won’t listen when I tell her to run.”</p><p>“I’m not leaving you to get ripped apart!” she snapped, grabbing his wrist and holding it steady, away from her chin. “If you die I wouldn’t make it ten seconds out there. Especially not if they go after you. No, okay? No. I’m coming with you and that’s final. You don’t get to be the stupid hero and sacrifice yourself for me. If we go down, that’s a ‘we’, and it always will be.” Somewhere in her words, tears rose up into her eyes. She ignored the lump inching up her throat.</p><p>He didn’t say anything, only pulled her into him, arms tight around her back and burying his face into the fluff of her hair. She sighed, finding her energy was draining again, and she leaned back into him. She didn’t expect him to start running his fingers through her hair, but he did, and it was more soothing than she wanted to admit.</p><p>“You scare the daylights out of me,” he muttered, his voice muffled by her hair. She squeezed his torso in return, smiling a little.</p><p>“If I ask if we can barricade those… things out of the boiler room so I can work, is the answer going to be a solid ‘no’? I saw the hydro system before they decided to kill us. I can fix it. I know I can. If we can like… smoke them out or something, so we can put up a barricade, I can fix it and we can get water in here. Depending on what other resources we have, I might be able to slap something together for cleaning it all out.” She expected him to refuse, expected him to shake his head and say something painfully heroic and downright irritating that equated to ‘don’t do anything risky’. He sighed instead, a long, debating one, before he lifted his head out of her hair, glancing at her before pulling her closer into him, almost protectively.</p><p>“There’s a few ways to smoke them out, yes. I have two flares, that’s it. I don’t like using them, they’re irreplaceable and the third left me the only survivor in a group of five. We can try. But if it’s too dangerous, we’re bailing. I love you. My heart can’t take you throwing yourself into my very nightmares twice in one day.” His expression was gentle, affectionate, he wasn’t smiling but she could tell that he would be if she wasn’t asking him to let her risk her safety. </p><p>She stopped, suddenly both not at all sure and very sure on what she’d heard. “You love me?” was all that escaped her lips, feeling every muscle relax even though she hadn’t realized she was so tense. He smiled, nodding, and she was about to kiss him when her stomach gave a kiss. His fins flared in surprise, his eyes wide.</p><p>“Is <em>that</em> what it feels like…?” he asked, his voice suddenly almost distant, like he was asking the air. His face broke into a wide grin, and it was like dawn breaking the horizon after so long without the sun. She leaned into him, sighing, ignoring how awkward her position was. </p><p>“I love you too, Albafica,” she murmured, and leaned up against him. He tilted back with her, and she leaned in for a kiss, and never quite made it. He fell back with her, one hand in her hair and the other on her stomach, and they fell off the divan and onto the floor.</p><p>“Ack,” he yelped, back slamming against the floor and Minos on top of him. He looked so stunned and she had a fairly soft landing, and she just started to laugh. He reached up to brush hair out of her face. She kissed his palm through his glove, and he started laughing with her, and she didn’t quite feel so peaceful as she did that moment.</p><p> </p><p>Albafica smoked out the boiler room with a flair. He hadn’t even needed to barricade it. Or at least, he didn’t have to do any more than patch up the barricade. The nope-creatures were smart enough to have jammed broken planks and fragments of fence and sheet metal up to make a sort of wall, and he’d only needed to pull it up into something more self-standing.</p><p>This wasn’t a surprise, and he told her as much: “They were human once, even if they got the wildly short end of the stick. This is pretty much their way of apologizing for being on our territory, if I understand the mentality correctly. I know that I get rather strange when I’m back home, so I think it makes sense.”</p><p>She was quiet for a moment, turning the revelation over in her head, twisting pipes and rivets and wrapping things together with what tape she’d been able to find. She couldn’t spot weld, and she’d already blown the jumper cables, but if she did find a tool for spot-welding, she was pretty sure she could hook it up to the generator and finish the job. Amazingly, the mechanic who had worked here didn’t think they should remove any parts from the room, which made the job infinitely easier. </p><p>“So the four creatures I killed… They were people, once?” she asked slowly, piecing it all together. If that were true, and she had actually…</p><p>“Not anymore,” he answered darkly. He was seated about seven feet away, far enough to not be in her way, close enough to help her if she asked. “There wouldn’t have been any saving them. You did what you needed to do.”</p><p>“They were people,” she replied absently, mind on a race. She wasn’t sure if her heart was in her gut or her throat, but it suddenly seemed very hard to swallow, and she was deeply glad she’d eaten so little. “And I… I…”</p><p>She’d killed four people. Knowingly. Because she thought she needed to when she didn’t. And the worst part was remembering hearing herself laugh. She had enjoyed every moment of it. </p><p>“You did what you needed to do to survive.” She heard his voice, firm and gentle, and barely registered it. She had killed four people, and laughed like a murderess, and she hadn’t been sorry. She was just so much a killer as the ravagers.</p><p>“I enjoyed it.” The words came out of her lips like the confession they were, but she didn’t quite recognize the voice as her own: the words hung in the air in front of her, unseen and unmoving, like it was meant to exist no matter what she said about it. She’d murdered four people, thoughtlessly, violently, and she’d enjoyed every moment of it.</p><p>Albafica was quiet. “That happens, sometimes. You aren’t the only one like that. We do what we have to do.”</p><p>His words were the barest of comforts. She wanted so badly to believe him, but she couldn’t. She wanted it to be true, but it wasn’t: she was still a murderer, and she’d still killed four people. Four people who were now gone, now lost, entirely because of her.</p><p>She pushed up her sleeves a little, forcing herself to swallow down the lump in her throat, forcing herself to keep going. She was almost done. Almost done, and then it would all be better. She’d still killed people. Killed them and she couldn’t even mourn for them, couldn’t have done anything else but enjoying the slaughter.</p><p>“The hydro system itself is still powered,” she said, quietly. “We weren’t isolated in the biodome, we ran on the same power everyone else did. If you guys had lost central power, we would’ve, too. The system’s still up if we can get onto it, which we can. And since we can, and since the primary fluctuation is still intact, well.”</p><p>He shifted, and they locked eyes. His face was full of some emotion that she almost wanted to call ‘hope’, fins straight up in the air with interest. </p><p>She smiled, faint and mirthless and without the energy to really be excited. “You want a bath, fishboy?”</p><p>It turned out, he absolutely did. They headed back up to what she had already come to call ‘their’ flat, eight floors up but residential and largely intact. He’d made a comment earlier about rich people and living for the photograph instead of the life, and she’d snarked right back, pointing out that it worked in their favour. He’d laughed at that, and when he turned on the kitchen sink, water ran clear out of it, clear and fresh and good. He withdrew a stick from inside his backpack, and this one she recognized: testing the pH, ensuring it would be safe to use.</p><p>She did her work well. It ran the perfect colour. He turned to her, his face stunned. “You did it,” he said, voice distant. “You actually did it.”</p><p>Minos nodded, pride swelling in her chest. “I’m a smart girl. I absolutely did. Now, it’s bathtime. I haven’t had a bath in months, and you need one a hell of a lot more than I do.” She leaned forward, pressing her palms firmly against his chest and backing him up into the bathroom. He laughed, letting her push him around despite the height difference. He’d clearly cleaned out the bathroom while she’d been sleeping. A pang of gratitude shot through her. He pulled off his gloves and bent at the tub to turn on the taps, checking both the water and the temperature. It had been trivial to adjust the generator into distilling the water as it heated it, using the waste materials as extra fuel. </p><p>“Shower first,” he said firmly. “No point settling into a bath before we scrub off all the dirt. I don’t remember the last time I took a bath, but it was certainly before you, and if we have the city’s entire supply at our fingertips, I’m going to enjoy a nice, hot, clean bath.”</p><p>She smiled and stepped away, beginning to strip herself of her clothes. Goggles and mask and scarf, canvas straps and gloves, jackets, everything she’d been wearing. She heard Albafica’s breath catch beside her as he turned on the shower. She glanced over, noticing his eyes on her, <em>really</em> looking at her, like he’d never seen her before. It occurred to her that he really hadn’t: even when she’d had her thighs around his hips and his mouth against hers and the weight of him inside her, neither had actually been entirely out of clothes- they’d just been getting their hands under them, feeling for what they wouldn’t have been able to see anyway. This was the most of her body he’d ever seen, and judging by the angle of his fins and the somewhat stunned expression on his face, he liked what he was seeing. </p><p>She blushed, a little, pulling her shirt off over her head with a knowing smile on her lips. She wasn’t about to start stripteasing - not that she knew how, honestly - and delay from getting into the water, but she could shake her hips a little for him. “You should be getting undressed too, because I’m not letting you into a bath with your clothes on,” she teased softly, smiling inwardly. </p><p>He jumped a little, nodding, startled out of his admiring trance. “Right, yes, I should do that,” he muttered, standing up again to start stripping. She was out of clothes before he was, unclasping her bra and tossing it atop the pile of clothes, which really did need a wash now that she was looking at them. She settled with her stomach gently against the counter, holding its weight up and not against her spine. She paused to admire him, noting how lithe he actually was now that his clothes weren’t making him look bulkier. He packed quite a lot of muscle, worn from work and constant walking. His skin was splattered with scales and freckles, his scales the same sky-blue as his hair when it was visible, and best of yet, he had a very nice ass.</p><p>He pulled his hair free from its updo and it hung just past his waist, all blue and straw-like and still in the vague shape of a ponytail. She had to hold back a slight whistle. He turned back to her, his cheeks slightly reddened, and held out his arms to her. “Let’s get you washed,” he said, and she stepped into him with a hum, taking the opportunity to kiss his collarbone. </p><p>He’d found a small stool for the shower, which looked very inviting under the water. He pushed her gently onto it, settling himself on the ledge just to her side between the wall and the tub. The water hit her just over the shoulders, warm and wet and downright <em>heavenly</em>, and she let out a breath, shifting her position so her stomach rested its weight on her thighs. Albafica leaned forward and kissed her. She closed her eyes and kissed her back, noting vaguely the weight of his hands on her neck, gently beginning to rub all the dirt off of her. She sighed deeply, relaxing, her hands finding his neck and returning the gesture in the unspoken agreement. His skin was rough, but still warm under her touch.</p><p>They must have been there for twenty minutes, working the dirt off of each other, the water never growing colder, kissing each other whenever the opportunity arose. They didn’t have any soap, but Albafica had brought a small washcloth that was really just a musty dishtowel, and that was more than good enough for her. He’d gotten most of the way through washing her off, having avoided her inner thighs entirely, by the time he drew back a few inches, pausing.</p><p>“D’you mind if I…?” he started, hesitant.</p><p>She smiled, slow and almost predatory, eyeing the scales splattered across his abdomen, and didn’t answer. She shifted closer to him, slipping her hands between his legs, finding what she wanded and giving him a couple of rough strokes between his thighs. He closed his eyes with a sharp intake of breath, cheeks reddened and fins relaxing with the unexpected pleasure. He was soft under her, but didn’t stay that way.</p><p>“I should think that you may,” she purred, smiling at him. “Considering you got me pregnant in the first place.”</p><p>“You’re a tease,” he murmured in return, without any real malice in his tone. True to his word, he slipped his hands and the washcloth between her thighs, gently easing out the grime and dirt. She returned the favour, careful not to brush up too hard against his scales. She paused to stroke him a few more times, teasing, and took the opportunity to feel him up as she cleaned him off. He’d closed his eyes once she’d started, his cheeked reddened, his breath quicker and more shallow. She leaned forward, intending to kiss down his neck, and stopped.</p><p>“Your gills are open,” she remarked, noting how odd they looked, and how pretty.</p><p>He opened one eye, cheeks almost aflame from her hands. “It’s pretty humid in here, and you aren’t helping that very much,” he deadpanned in return. “I haven’t the faintest idea why I might need them to breathe.”</p><p>She laughed and tilted her head up ever so slightly to kiss down his jawline, noting the soft scruff of a man in his mid-twenties. He was incredibly handsome, even more so now that the grime had been cleared away. Just the type she’d chased after in high school, though she didn’t think she was going to turn around and break his heart. Even better, she didn’t think he was going to run away from her, either.</p><p>It was another ten minutes before they finally had the will to leave the shower and dry off. They didn’t have a towel, but they did have another two dishcloths that Albafica had found earlier, so they made do, wringing out their hair in the tub before drying off. She glanced at the mirror, still a little foggy but clear enough to discern her own appearance.</p><p>“Jeez,” she muttered, slipping her hands around her stomach, eyeing her reflection. “Didn’t know I’d get so big. All my feathers are turning a weird shade of brass, that’s silly.”</p><p>Beside her, Albafica seemed frozen, staring at his own reflection in apparent shock. “Hey, Minos,” he said, slowly. “I kind of hope I’m just seeing things, or my sight is strange now, or… What colour is my hair?”</p><p>“Uh, blue? Like the sky’s supposed to be?” She glanced over, frowning a little. “Is it not supposed-?”</p><p>“I’m <em>fucking blond,</em>” he blurted, and dropped the towel. “Why is my hair <em>blue</em>. That’s ridiculous. I’m not an anime character. I’m <em>blond</em>. This can<em>not</em> be happening.”</p><p>“It’s happening,” she said, and it took everything she had not to start laughing. His face was priceless, the sort of mute horror that only looked good on pretty, half-fish men. “If it helps, I was your standard brunette before the whole griffon thing. I didn’t get snow-white hair until after things exploded. And you’re not the only bluenette around.”</p><p>“Call me a bluenette one more time and I <em>will</em> start screaming, Minos.”</p><p>She laughed, stretching out a bit and ignoring the soft kick to her stomach. “Then it’s a good thing you’re a cute bluenette, isn’t it?” She reached over and squeezed his ass, finding his jump extremely satisfying. She headed out of the bathroom, opting to leave her clothes where they were. It was a little uncomfortable without a bra to offset the soreness of her chest or adjust the weight - she hoped that was just a pregnancy thing and not going to be the rest of her life - but she headed back to the divan all the same, plunging herself into the covers. It was well on its way to night now, and though she couldn’t see any stars from where she was, it was soothing.</p><p>Albafica followed her, also without clothes. She looked up, already settled into the blankets. “Is there any food up here? We’ve barely eaten, and if this place has anything at all, I’d really think I’d like some.” She did feel a little faint, now that she thought about it. Hunger was basically everyone’s normal, though Albafica had done a decent job at keeping her as fed as possible. </p><p>He paused, thinking for a moment. “I did see some canned things, but I’m not trying to cook anything until we know what our resources here are. I still have that MRE in my backpack, though. It’ll work for tonight.” He stepped over to it and pulled out the package of food, then walking over to her and settling down beside her on the divan. </p><p>When she pulled the covers over the both of them, he didn’t refuse her. She smiled, swallowing a chunk of meat, and settled into his side. He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and she thought she was happy right where she was. </p>
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